HUMAN SURVIVORSHIP
GENERAL ECOLOGY LABORATORY

Location: Woodlawn Cemetery

Objective: To analyze the survivorship of the human population in the Winona area

Hypothesis: The survivorship of males and females in the Winona-area human population is similar.

Agenda:

1) Work in pairs.

2) Record the age at death of individuals from grave markers.

3) Determine the sex of each individual.

4) Continue until 100 males and 100 females have been recorded.

Analysis:

1) Construct life tables (3 of them total): one for males, one for females, and one for both sexes combined (pp. 139-140). Use 5-year age intervals (e.g., 0-4, 5-9, 10-14, etc.).

2) Construct survivorship curves for both male and female life table data (p. 141). Remember to use log survivorship (log of column 4 data) as the vertical axis for your plots, and the first year of each age group as the horizontal axis. Place both curves on the same graph.

Equipment:

Notebook, Lab manual, Pocket calculator